There are a wide variety of resins which may be used as dielectric layers in electronic applications or as thin films in other applications. It is advantageous to be able to determine the configuration of said resins during or after the processing steps used to fabricate a finished article containing the resin. By configuration it is meant such things as the shape, thickness, uniformity of thickness, presence or absence of voids, contamination, mounds of excess material, presence or absence of resin, concentration of the fluorescing species or inclusions in the resin and the like.
A useful method for finding voids, contaminants and excess material is called optical inspection which may be used to find such defects in dielectric layers in microelectronic devices. It is beneficial to use the fluorescent properties of the resin for such inspections. Not all resins are inherently fluorescent at useful wavelengths.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,047 discloses a method for enhancing the fluorescence of resins by adding fluorescent dyes such as perylene to the polymer. This adds steps to the process for making the microelectronic articles and the presence of the dye changes the properties of the resin leading to potential deterioration of the properties or requiring a change in the formulation or procedure for using the resin.